Rex Grossman

Chicago Bears training camp 2008
Originally uploaded by charlesbarthold

Why this? Because I can, I guess. I managed to upgrade to a Nikon SLR in July which managed to annoy my kids to no end since all I did was take pictures of them on vacation. But they did find it cool that I could take action shots of the Bears when we visited their summer training camp a few weeks ago.

Here we have Rex Grossman which is kind of cool. Except a few days ago Kyle Orton was named the starter. So much for my career in sports journalism.

The ways of old media

A quote by Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics, is a great summary of the networks' view of the new media world and how off base they can be at times.

On Friday morning NBC decided not to telecast the Olympic Opening Ceremonies live. That led to a bunch of online carping. I managed to do a bit of whining myself on Twitter (click here) which led to a mention on Brian Stelter's blog on the New York Times. (Click here.)

In short, many people wondered why there wasn't live coverage of the Opening Ceremonies. Zenkel, defending the decision to show the ceremonies 12 hours after they happened said this:

“We have a billion dollars worth of revenue at stake here, so that means we’re not public television, for better or worse.”

Aside from coming across as a bit snippy, it also shows how NBC can't recognize an opportunity when it presents itself. Here we have demand and networks restricting supply. So instead of figuring out a way to broadcast the ceremonies live online or on TV, either in its entirety or in snippets, they pursue a policy that encourages avid fans to search elsewhere. And because there is this thing called the Internet, they find it elsewhere. (Click here for a great article by Brian Stelter on how it was done.)

Seems NBC would have been smarter to do a limited broadcast (sponsored, of course) in the morning which which have given all us a flavor of what to expect 12 hours later and allowed us, by word of mouth, to promote what ended up being a spectacular event.

The long tail in action

I recently finished reaching Chris Anderson's book, The Long Tail, which has caused me to look at some things a little differently.

The most recent examples were radio channels on XM Radio. Last week I stumbled across Channel 51, all Coldplay all the time, at least through August 15. (I also discovered Channel 18, Kenny Chesney all the time.)

My nephew wondered aloud how such channels could possibly make money. Fortunately, I had the answer and even looked smart. Because there's no real incremental cost of changing a channel's format, the Coldplay and Kenny Chesney ideas are brilliant ones. I was particularly taken by the Coldplay channel which coincides with their tour and is a great way to increase exposure for the band as well as XM.

Where am I?

Here's a story about the limitations of efficiencies. During the recent family vacation I tried to find a hotel near the highway. Holiday Inn Express seemed like a reasonable choice. I called their central booking number and booked a room based on the information they gave me -- the hotel was near the highway.

Turns out the hotel was near the highway, just not the one we were traveling on that evening. We finally found the hotel around 1230 am and discovered there were two highways with the same number, hence the confusion.

Lesson learned -- never deal with central booking and always try to book through the local hotel.

Customer loyalty

During a recent family trip we stopped by the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. The day we were there, preparations were being made for the induction of five new members the next day. Two, Art Monk and Darrell Green, played for the Redskins. During our day-long visit I noticed the huge number of Redskin fans. I wondered aloud if this was usual -- such a strong outpouring of fan support for one or two players. Turns out it wasn't. (Click here for article by Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post on the induction ceremony and large number of Redskin fans.)

I wonder how many sports teams or companies can claim to have this much loyalty. There had to be several thousand Redskin fans floating around Canton the day I was there. All either drove the 350 miles or flew to Cleveland. And in this day of $4 per gallon gas that's saying a lot.

This came a week after visiting the Chicago Bears training camp in Bourbonnais, Ill., on the campus of Olivet Nazarene University where we witnessed something similar. Admission was free, so was parking. We had great seats right near the practice field. We got to roam around during the practice and afterwards many of the players came over to the sidelines and offered up autographs. (That's Devin Hester in the photo at left.) My kids were already Bears fans before we went down to camp but the rich experience made them even stronger ones.

Of course they forced you to walk through the gift shop to get to the field but you didn't have to buy anything (we resisted).

In both instances I marveled at how two pro teams had managed to keep their fans so happy.